Power to the people

Nice post from Seth Godin about how the concept of brand management is fundamentally changing in favour of tapping into, and facilitating, existing communities. It goes without saying that online has helped shape products and services around the needs of customers (search engines, auctions, fares aggregators etc), but this post touches upon how companies / brands needs to assess how they function within this environment and re-organise if they want to survive.

As a companion post, take a look at this beauty from Hyperhappen, discussing the growth in word of mouth marketing, and the importance of not just talking to people about your product, but getting them to talk to each other (and anyone who'll listen) about it. Apple have used it as the heart of their marketing strategy for years and it seems to be working.